Al-Jazeera Center for Studies has published a new digital book entitled “The Social and Intellectual Origins of the Islamic Moroccan Movement: The Process of Transition from Radicalization to Moderation,” by the Moroccan researcher, Dr. Abd El-Ilah Satti.
The book sheds light on the main concepts on which the Moroccan Islamic movement was based in its founding beginnings, which were dominated by religious ideology by relying on a dictionary of identities that takes from the Islamic reference its legitimacy, such as "establishing an Islamic state" and "Islam is the solution", And “The Qur’an is our constitution,” and “The Revelation of the Sharia.”
It also examines how it has transformed - after the revision process launched by the movement in the early 1980s, and after the influence of political practice from within the constitutional political institutions to adopt a conceptual dictionary that draws from the references of political modernity its statements, such as "democracy", "the national state", and "political reform." .
The book concludes that the path of the Islamic movement was not a linear one, but rather it was a steady path subject to fluctuations and fluctuating contexts, by moving from a religious movement with an identity reference that presents itself as an alternative to the existing political situation through the approach of conducting political change to a quasi-political movement that mixes the field of advocacy and the field Politics, then to a political party subject to the rules of pragmatic political practice.
It is a path - as the author says - that imposed on the movement to adapt to the variables of the social circumstance and the existing political environment in order to organize in the political process.
This is why - the writer adds - the greater the degree of political openness, the greater the regularity of the movement in political practice, taking advantage of the size of the available political opportunities, in order to strengthen its political and social presence.
The more this political presence within the state institutions is strengthened, the movement will coordinate towards modifying its positions and mitigating its ideological views and perceptions in line with its position within political institutions, its commitment to democracy and the rejection of violence and moderation in proposing and accepting pluralism, and participating in alliances with other political organizations and parties, as the contexts dictate. And the requirements of pragmatic political practice.
The author of the book is Dr. Abd El-Ilah Satti, a researcher in political science and constitutional law, who holds a doctorate from the Faculty of Law at the University of Muhammad V Agdal in Rabat. He has a number of research papers and studies in refereed scientific journals, and his book "Beyond Political Islam in Morocco" was published. And the book "Political Decision Making in Morocco", as well as "The Monarchy and the Islamists."
His field of interest focuses on issues of political Islam, and political and social transformations in the Arab region.